I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, revealing how this (or some other seemingly innocuous story) serves as an "October Surprise" to help Obama block or distract from Romney's surge.

I'm waiting for them to activate the secret chip in all their phones which causes people to zombify. It's about as likely as any of these firms being a serious threat to US national security. That's what the scare was with the Japanese in the 1980s-90s which produced such techno-paranoia style thrillers as Rising Sun. I'd be more worried about India, where most of the tech savvy populus speak English. And I am not worried about India.

All the Oblahblah aside, Huawei and ZTE *are* too cosy with the Chinese government, and there is the very real risk of the companies putting back doors into their device firmwares for Chinese government use. And not just to snoop into your mom's kinky affair text messages, both companies sell infrastructure devices in significant quantities, so not only are we talking mass surveillance, but they could also cripple national infrastructure when it's strategically suitable.

To me, that's far more important than squabbling over which of the two corporatist parties you want in office._________________

juniper wrote:

you experience political reality dilation when travelling at american political speeds. it's in einstein's formulas. it's not their fault.